GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — ArtPrize 2023 will award over $500,000 in prizes, including a $125,000 grand prize, $200,000 in in public vote prizes and $200,000 in juried prizes.
The massive Grand Rapids art competition, under new leadership this year, announced the basic prize information Thursday. The juried prizes will “include opportunities to recognize contemporary artists from under-represented communities,” a release noted.
“We’re looking at about $200,000 in the public vote grand prize category, $125,000 for the full place grand prize and then about $200,000 is going to be allocated for juried prizes as well as our visibility awards, which are directed to really highlighting artists who excel from underrepresented communities,” said Catlin Whitington, the new executive director of ArtPrize. “And then about $200,000 of that will be allocated in various grant funding from small artist capacity-building grants to large grants for public activations and elements.”
ArtPrize is also promising “enhanced programming with daily ArtPrize-produced and community-led events.” A list of those events has not yet been released.
“We are working with the community to build a new ArtPrize, and this means there are elements, like our website, that will evolve in the coming weeks as we together redefine what ArtPrize is. We want to honor ArtPrize’s legacy, while bringing new life to the experience for local residents and businesses, along with the global artist and art-loving community,” executive director Catlin Whitington said in a release.
Also Thursday, venue registration opened. It runs through May 26. Venues must be within the ArtPrize area that includes downtown and surrounding neighborhoods but can be any sort of shop, restaurant or business. Venues host artwork from all over the world. Those who are interested can find more information and register at ArtPrize.org.
“We are doing a concentrated outreach to various venues that have participated in the past and really looking at some of the venues that have come up over the past couple of years in the downtown region,” said Whitington. “Small venues, large venues, excited to see those that want to participate and start having those conversations.”
ArtPrize organizers will host an information session for venues on April 28 from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. and another for artists and venues on May 12 from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Both sessions will be held at 400 Pearl Street NW #20 in Grand Rapids.
“I think that a lot of this will look a lot like it has in the past. Our team really has a lot of institutional memory and institutional knowledge about the event itself. And I think you’ll see a lot of really great elements that are coming into the downtown region as you’ve seen in the past,” Whitington said.
Artist registration opens May 1.
ArtPrize 2023 is scheduled for Sept. 14 to Oct. 1.